With women's game in transition, Invicta FC's Marloes Coenen ready to claim the throne

The landscape of women’s MMA has flipped upside down in the last year since Marloes Coenen lost her bantamweight title to Miesha Tate at a Strikeforce show in Illinois.

After a dispute between her Golden Glory team and Strikeforce officials, Coenen was cut from the top women’s promotion. Tate relinquished the title in her first defense to former judo Olympic medalist and rising MMA star Ronda Rousey, in arguably the biggest female bout ever in March.

But sitting somewhat in the shadows was Coenen (19-5), waiting for the right opportunity to return to the spotlight. The Dutch Striker gets that shot Saturday night when she headlines Invicta Fighting Championships debut show in Kansas City, Kan., in a featherweight rematch against French standout Romy Ruyssen (5-1).

“I’m really excited,” Coenen told MMAjunkie.com. “Driving into Kansas City, I saw myself on a big billboard for the first time in my life. That was really cool.

“I’m really happy I’m able to headline this event. I think it’s the next evolution for this side of the sport.”

Invicta FC is North America’s first all-pro, all-female MMA organization since Fatal Femmes Fighting staged four events in California from 2007 to 2008. The inaugural Invicta FC card — which features several well-known fighters from Strikeforce, Bellator, and EliteXC competing in all five major women’s weight divisions from 105 to 145 pounds — streams live for free this Saturday on InvictaFC.com at 8 p.m. ET.

The co-feature pits Jessica Penne (8-1) against fellow Bellator veteran Lisa Ellis-Ward (14-7) in a 105-pound atomweight bout. Several other notable fighters such as Kaitlin Young (7-5), Liz “Girl-Rilla” Carmouche (5-2) and Sarah “The Monster” D’Alelio (4-2) will compete on the 11-bout card, which also features the anticipated MMA debut of Randi Miller, a 2008 Olympic bronze-medalist wrestler.

While Coenen, who returns to the cage for the first time in 274 days since losing to Tate last July, says she doesn’t feel she has to prove anything to still be mentioned amongst the handful of fighters atop the women’s standings — she wants to prove a point to herself.

“I’m always wanting to prove myself every time I go out there,” she said. “I’m a fighter, I want to kick butt.

“I don’t think I need to prove anything for my career. But I am coming off a loss that was unexpected and hurt me a lot. I know I’m a good fighter, but yeah, you could say that messed with my mind a little.”

The 31-year-old Coenen will take the stage with a familiar face staring her down in the 22-year-old Ruyssen, who she defeated via rear-naked choke late in the second round of their fight in August of 2008 in Basel, Switzerland. While Coenen went on to capture Strikeforce’s bantamweight championship in 2010, Ruyssen also enjoyed some success since suffering her first setback. Ruyssen, who will be making her North American debut under the Invicta FC banner, has won all four of her matches since Coenen via first-round submissions.

“Four years ago she was really young,” Coenen said. “Back then she was really only known for her ground game. I found out the other day she was a black belt in judo as well. She’s progressed a lot.

“But I think I’ve progressed a lot, too. I’ve wrestled a lot lately. I’ve improved a lot in some other areas that I can’t tell you about right now. I think it will be an exciting fight.”

Coenen says she’s equally excited to see how the all-female show is embraced.

“There’s a lot of serious people involved and with people like Shannon Knapp, (Invicta FC CEO, who previously was heavily involved with Strikeforce) who knows everything about the female scene. I think a bunch of things have come together at the right time,” Coenen said.

While some of the best female fighters like Tate and Rousey are not currently part of the promotion, Coenen says who knows what could happen in the future.

UFC president Dana White has said several times women will never compete on a UFC card, but what kind of future deals the UFC has with Strikeforce in regards to female fighters remains to be seen. Coenen believes with the right personnel, sponsors, and breaks, a promotion like Invicta could take off.

“Here we are in 2012 and MMA is at an all-time high,” she said. “Everyone is focusing on the UFC and wanting the sport to go mainstream, but how do you go mainstream if you’re trying to only reach an audience with very alpha-male marketing?

“You have a huge population of females interested as well. Maybe this all-female card, with a variety of different girls, can bring in a huge audience. The right people are behind Invicta. A lot of the top girls are already in Invicta. If this show goes good and we get the right sponsors, yeah I think things could really explode and this could become a huge part of the sport.”

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

The man known for cranking submissions to the point of injury added eye-gouging to his repertoire. But is the controversy of Rousimar Palhares too essential to his bizarre, awful appeal for his employers to take any meaningful action against him?